“Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked
cisterns that can hold no water.”
–Jeremiah 2:11 – 13
I hang onto a far too pride-filled moment from a time I spent backpacking in Europe in the autumn of 1978. Kevin and Dave, two personable American lads from Springfield, Mass., had joined up with our travelling twosome from Hamilton, Ont., and we were entering a port in Greece onboard an Italian vessel. Ahead of us, spray – painted in gigantic letters of red ink along the portside break wall, was a blindingly loud statement: “Imperialist Yankee, go home!” With a demoralized look on his face that I shall never forget, Kevin turned to me and said, “That Canadian flag on your backpack; got a spare one I could borrow?”
That pride is much harder to find today. Once the beloved and generous international partner of many around the globe, Canada’s reputation for innovative development support to have-not nations is rapidly becoming a distant memory. In Lebanon last October, our moderatorial contingent visited a children’s learning centre in the Dbayeh refugee camp near Beirut. We saw computer monitors with that familiar Government of Canada logo attached to them, and for a moment our vain pride returned, until they told us that those were the last gifts from Canada they had received since 2006. They were told that nothing more would be coming their way.
What troubles me is not that different governments have different priorities. I understand that political policy is shaped by many factors, and often driven by economic realities on the ground locally. But what I struggle with is the larger “values” question. It used to mean something higher and better when Canada entered the international arena. It’s as though we once intrinsically believed that our blessings were to be shared rather generously with peoples around the world who were not as fortunate as we were. And the influence of the Christian church was a big part of that sense of how we acted as Canadians. Our federal government paid attention to the “service beyond self” values that our churches preached. So what has happened? Have we taken our eyes off of God? Have we stopped believing and living the Saviour’s message? What are we actually becoming if we are no longer the nation we once were, and perhaps more importantly, where is the passionate voice of the Christian church to be heard in these times?
I suspect this new entity we are evolving into as a nation is neither your choice nor mine, correct? So have we now become a nation that is content to have traded the Christ-driven concern and care of others for the exclusive preservation of ourselves? Is Jeremiah’s voice no longer heard, if not through our own voices or protests, at least through our sadness for the poor and oppressed whom we are, more and more, silently abandoning? Are we actually succumbing to the human folly that our economic policies, our “cracked cisterns,” will somehow nourish our souls? Surely the One who is our fountain of living water is calling us back to the wellspring, buckets for sharing in hand!
